Mahabaleshwar Blues

Astride Aryan in Mahabaleshwar

Ahem. Mahabaleshwar was beautiful. At the echo point I gazed down at a dam – probably the Koyna dam – which lay sprawled below fed by the Koyna river. The view was majestic as the sunlight created light and shades in innumerable shafts that shimmered below in a sweeping long valley that is too awesome to describe. (Sorry, after this pathetic line, I give up.) I like to think not much of it has changed after creation was set in its paces by the almighty hand. Stephen Hawking said God is the personification of the laws of physics and who are we to question those laws?

Rode on the back of Aryan led by one Shahrukh – the irony wasn't lost on me. No, really. Aryan took me to two prominent views of Mahabaleshwar while Shahrukh his master, studying in eighth standard walked beside him. I like to sit astride a horse and watch things from a height, gives one a feeling of freedom. The sturdy Aryan bore my weight easily, though he had to goaded by pokes and beatings with a twig from Shahrukh. Shahrukh tells me that there's no business in the months of June, July, August and September. So I gave him a handsome reward for a one-and-a-half hour ride around the scenic spots and the market in the morning.

Hotel Gautam in Mahabaleshwar is good in an old-world kind of way, structure made of stone, terraced rooms built on a cliff abutting the valley. Only the mobile thingy didn't work. That reminded me how we are dependent on these gadgets and I was planning to lug my laptop along. So no blogging happened for two days. But I am back.

Let me take you down
Cos I am going to
Strawberry fields,
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about.

Yes Mahabaleshwar is famous for strawberry and I saw a strawberry field and visited Mapro where they make strawberry jam, sweets and even chocolates. Wish I had a longer stay so I could relish – yes, literally – the place a bit more. I am going back there, for sure.